Keep hyping exclusives kids, they're anti consumer and bad all around for the industry but keep it up

Xbox is sh!t because they don't have exclusives right? Well now MS has bought a bunch of studios and are buying more and they will have a bunch of exclusives.

Here is your perfect world, for the exclusive fanboys out there. Sony, MS and Nintendo all have a lot of great exclusive games releasing each year.

Translation, you have to buy all the consoles as well as a gaming PC and have them all hooked up waiting for your favorite exclusive to hit whatever console.

Now let's take a look at a world with no exclusives. You can buy any console of your choice and you will be able to play anything you want on it. The only difference is if you buy a PC with top end hardware for example, everything will run great on it. Alternatively if you buy a Switch you will have the worst graphics but it will be portable as well.

In this world you can get by with only one console and the reason to buy that console is because of the hardware, price, features, controller, online support and so on.

The worst reason to buy a console is because Sony for example makes a game exclusive and forces you to go buy their box just to play that game. The shocking thing is so many here pretend as if they love this model.

Notice movies are all multiplat it doesn't matter if you buy a Sony blu-ray player or a Toshiba, you can play any movie on any of them. Mobile games are all multiplat as well. You can buy any Android, Samsung Galaxy, LG, Nexus or even an iphone and you will play any game you want.

Only on consoles do you have fanboys pretending as if having games exclusives to consoles is some great thing that we all love.

Do you guys really think exclusives are that great? Really, have you thought this one through?

MS is, buy once, play anywhere, 4K, BC, GP, truly for the gamers... Jazz. :P

That's how it should be. What the hell is the point of different systems if they all play the same games with no exclusions?

@Telekill: I wouldn’t mind having a single system.

Who tf cares? I can play every game I want to play. That sounds like an argument from the person with no exclusives who now needs to or should've bought a PS4. No reason to buy an Xbox anything. They make good games next gen I'll play ball. Until then I'm good with PS4 and my critically acclaimed "movie games" lol

Xbox's "exclusive" games will also be on PC anyway.

And well that's capitalism son. Exclusives are a big incentive buying a particular console.

Xbox has no exclusives so it's not a big deal. Hell, they're gonna mess around and put more of their games on Playstation and Nintendo at this rate.

@Telekill: Then why isn't there just one Blu-ray player on the market?

What is the point of there being more than one brand and model of blu-ray players?

@Xplode_games: So you're wanting the entire industry to change to the way the movie industry is handled?

When exclusives die, every gamer will become "The Master Race" at least.

Anti consumer? Bad for the industry? I need evidence and examples for these statements.

@Telekill: I don't know exactly what you mean by that question. What I am saying is every console should play any game. Similar to how any Blu-ray player can play any Blu-ray or DVD disk.

I really don't care. My thought on exclusives is that I simply ignore the games that aren't supported by my system(s) of choice (currently PC and Nintendo Switch). As long as I can buy games I want to play then I'm content.

Furthermore, the OP's movie analogy doesn't really work because most movies and TV shows are exclusive to a specific channel or service. You can't pay for a single subscription and then watch every movie and TV show.

@Xplode_games: Congrats, that's what my question implied and you were able to answer it.

I'm afraid you'll be disappointed. Even if we all thought as you do (we don't) companies like Nintendo will take their IPs to the grave.

Think the blueprint that MS is laying out is what Sony and Nintendo need to do. Give people more options to play more of your games with streaming services, play anywhere (console/pc).

Still makes ur preferred console viable and gives the gamers options to play other games without having to buy all the consoles, gamers win and publishers make more money off reoccuring sub fees, more money for studios, more money for studios to create and take risk.

Fighting exclusives is like spitting in the wind (copyright law won’t change anytime soon to incentivize platform agnosticism). Generally I agree with the OP’s thesis but for different reasons.

I would like MS to embrace Play Anywhere hardcore and continue to support the PS4 for studios that already support the system. The only difference would be that games bought with Xbox Play Anywhere can be played on the PC, Xbox and any Xcloud compatible devices for one price.

Streaming rights exist for movies, and tv shows.

Exclusive media content will ALWAYS exist because it incentivizes folks to you use YOUR platform / service.

****

The only possible world where exclusives don't exist is if we go down the road of streaming games. The reason being that games are directly attached to the hardware in the system unlike basically every other media. The only way to remove that is through streaming (or brute force development). Streaming makes the most sense, but then you get into another situation of streaming rights. That puts us at the exact same place as we are now, or worse!

More freedom / choice can, and has lead to other anti consumer practices.

How worse?

So when can we expect Forza on PlayStation?

@Pedro: We could have subscription packages from EA, Ubisoft, Sony, Microsoft etc.

Not mention it doesn't address the fact of having to pay for multiple network services like PSN.

The overall cost would be cheaper also all of these services would still be optional to purchasing.

Now use the word Draconian.

Complete the circle of foolishness.

Saw some people trying to say that the new EPIC store is anti-consumer and that competition is a bad thing.

The internet is truly....well it's a place.

A

Place.

Price, features, UI, aesthetics, reliability, support.

@Xplode_games: This is actually the best thread you have ever made. I agree that exclusives suck and we should not have to waste money on a console that we have no interest in just to get access to exclusives.

@BassMan said:

@Xplode_games: This is actually the best thread you have ever made. I agree that exclusives suck and we should not have to waste money on a console that we have no interest in just to get access to exclusives.

That's why the Xbox Play Anywhere is a step in the right direction. If you want to play on PC/console you can with the price of one purchase. :)

@Xplode_games:

Coming from someone who buys multiple consoles every gen, your argument means nothing. Exclusives are there to entice you to buy said console and it gives the console its own individual library. It's fine as is.

No, just no. Exclusives sell consoles, and console races drive competition. Competition drives new franchises, and new franchises drive ingenuity. Ingenuity drives the industry and the industry needs a good kick in the pants. Microsoft obtaining more studios is ONLY a good thing. Whether any of those studios is worth a shit or not is all opinion, but I would rather see a race then both MS and SONY accepting their place and just staying stagnant. SONY is watching MS very closely, and I'm sure they have made some moves that haven't been announced yet (or will soon) to compete in the coming years... since MS has clearly shown they want to compete much more closely next generation. More studios and more games is never bad.. I don't care what anyone says about that. I think the industry is slowly starting to realize that the mid tier games are a lot more important then they previously thought. I wouldn't be the least bit surprised to see some indie or kickstarter companies start getting snatched up by the two next gen.

@SecretPolice: By play anywhere, they mean on Xbox and PC... So much for "anywhere" lol. Even Sony has it where you can play games "anywhere" with a vita.

@Pedro said:

@BassMan said:

@Xplode_games: This is actually the best thread you have ever made. I agree that exclusives suck and we should not have to waste money on a console that we have no interest in just to get access to exclusives.

That's why the Xbox Play Anywhere is a step in the right direction. If you want to play on PC/console you can with the price of one purchase. :)

Xbox Play Anywhere is amazing for sure. All I want is the games. I don't give a shit about the consoles themselves. Allowing gamers to play the way they want is the best. Whether that be on console or PC, just make the games available to all.

Interesting thread you really can’t argue.

@Pedro: If MS really wants a Play Anywhere type system, I wonder if they'd put their games on PS4 and maybe Switch. That's if Sony agrees to crossplat play on those games. Imagine buying Gears Of War once but being able to play on any relevant systems with anyone on a different system. Include an m/kb option also. They'd probably make a ton more money, at least right now with ps4s selling over twice as much. Keep exclusives timed on Xbox for a year, then do everything I just said. Seems like a decent model to follow.

I completely agree. The software isn't where the differenciating factors between machines needs to be. Every few years you have a set "basement" level of performance that all machines need to at least be at, and then let manufacturers do their thing with UI, peripherals, features, etc etc. It'll never happen, but it is a nice eutopia to wish for.

I'd at least like to see the first step of current multiplats simply being purchased once and playable on any system that said title is available for. Say I purchase GTA VI on my X1X. I use my "universal game license login" on whatever machine I'm on and I can play on it, even when a new generation starts I use my login on my shiny new PS5.

Licenses should be tied to a user, not a machine. My friend wants to "borrow" the game from me, I use my login to temporarily transfer the license to his "universal game license" account and he can play it(and I can't)until I "reclaim" it or he "returns" it to me. If I want to sell a game you could permanently transfer a license in the same way. That's the digital future I'd like.

I agree in theory, and if all game development was focused on making the best possible games instead of making the most possible money, you'd be absolutely right.

the issue is that without these system-seller type of games, developers would resort to increasingly poor practices like excessive micro-transactions to maximise profits if all their revenue comes from game sales, and they don't have a first party funding projects that are designed not necessarily to make money from software sales but to promote hardware sales.

that is why major exclusive games often have less microtransactions/are designed to look impressive as possible, so they get people to go out and purchase the hardware required to run them.

it does frustrate me when a great game is trapped on a inferior system (aka consoles) but the reality is that many of these great games wouldn't exist as they do without first party funding.

This is the rare occasion where we can agree. :)

I think it would be great if they put their games on the Switch and PS4 (some of their acquisitions already do). I don't see the need for timed exclusives, just make it available day one on all platforms. The key differentiator should be that games bought for Xbox,PC or on XCloud should be fully portable between all three platforms/systems at no additional cost. Gaming anywhere on any platform should be their end goal.

Actually you guys, I do agree with Xplode_games for once!

Exclusive games on one system vs the others not being able to play that game does suck and it's anti-consumer as it is now. I personally would love to have access to every exclusive games on my PC so I won't have to waste my money & time on just a console I'm barely ever going to use. When Next-gen hits, I'm incline to buying PS5, I do like PS4 but I feel like I'm not gonna miss anything from PS5 but I would like to have access PS5 exclusive games on PC.

lol will you buy PS5 if Spiderman 2 comes out as an exclusive again?

Say what you want about Sony and exclusives, but at least they don't pump out shit like a lot of publishers do, EA, Zenimax, Konami and Activision are the fucking worst, sub shit tier companies, Microsoft are not much better but at least they have an incentive not to **** over their customers quite as bad.

As pc users I can't use that word, and am thus forced to watch silently in envy, bitterness quietly growing, ready to explode.

Exclusives sell systems, period.

Nice damage control thread. Sony and Nintendo have proven that exclusives matter. Sony has completely dominated this year thanks to exclusives like Spiderman, GOW, and Detroit. Look at the VGAs, it was mostly Sony exclsuives getting nominated and GOW even won the GOTY award. Anyone that says exclusives don’t matter at this point is stupidly delusional. MS is at the bottom primarily because their “exclsuives” are available on PC and because they are shit or stale for the most part.

Wii U and Gamecube sold like shit, even if they had an amazing exclusive games lineup.

@kenshiro3948: that's helps the corporations. How does that help you as a consumer though?

Actually it’s the opposite.

Exclusives drive competition which is good for everyone.

Got it, kid?

If consoles didnt have exclusives there would be no incentive to buy them. If Sony funds their exclusives why wouldnt they have the right to use them to drive their consoles sales?

But again, of course a lem would be against them... cause they have any.

If that was true then the Xbox One would not have sold 39 million consoles.